I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 651
To require the Federal Communications Commission to auction spectrum
in the band between 1.3 gigahertz and 13.2 gigahertz, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY23, 2025
Mr. A
LLENintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee
on Energy and Commerce
A BILL
To require the Federal Communications Commission to auc-
tion spectrum in the band between 1.3 gigahertz and
13.2 gigahertz, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Spectrum Pipeline Act 4
of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. IDENTIFICATION OF SPECTRUM FOR REALLOCA-6
TION AND AUCTION. 7
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 8
VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:09 Feb 19, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H651.IH H651
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 2
•HR 651 IH
(1) APPROPRIATE COMMITTEES OF CON -1
GRESS.—The term ‘‘appropriate committees of Con-2
gress’’ means— 3
(A) the Committee on Commerce, Science, 4
and Transportation of the Senate; and 5
(B) the Committee on Energy and Com-6
merce of the House of Representatives. 7
(2) A
SSISTANT SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Assist-8
ant Secretary’’ means the Assistant Secretary of 9
Commerce for Communications and Information. 10
(3) C
OMMISSION.—The term ‘‘Commission’’ 11
means the Federal Communications Commission. 12
(4) C
OVERED BAND .—The term ‘‘covered 13
band’’ means the band of frequencies between 1.3 14
gigahertz and 13.2 gigahertz. 15
(5) F
EDERAL ENTITY.—The term ‘‘Federal en-16
tity’’ has the meaning given the term in section 17
113(l) of the National Telecommunications and In-18
formation Administration Organization Act (47 19
U.S.C. 923(l)). 20
(6) F
ULL-POWER COMMERCIAL LICENSED USE 21
CASES.—The term ‘‘full-power commercial licensed 22
use cases’’ means flexible use wireless broadband 23
services with base station power levels sufficient for 24
high-power, high-density, and wide-area commercial 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:09 Feb 19, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H651.IH H651
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 3
•HR 651 IH
mobile services, consistent with the service rules 1
under part 27 of title 47, Code of Federal Regula-2
tions, or any successor regulations, for wireless 3
broadband deployments throughout the covered 4
band. 5
(b) I
DENTIFICATION FORREALLOCATION.— 6
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Assistant Secretary, in 7
consultation with the Commission, shall identify not 8
less than 2500 megahertz of spectrum in the covered 9
band, that as of the date of enactment of this Act 10
is allocated for Federal use or for shared Federal 11
and non-Federal use, for reallocation for non-Fed-12
eral use, shared Federal and non-Federal use, or a 13
combination thereof, including not less than 1250 14
megahertz for full-power commercial licensed use 15
cases. 16
(2) S
CHEDULE.—The Assistant Secretary shall 17
identify the spectrum under paragraph (1) according 18
to the following schedule: 19
(A) Not later than 2 years after the date 20
of enactment of this Act, the Assistant Sec-21
retary shall identify not less than 1250 mega-22
hertz of spectrum. 23
(B) Not later than 5 years after the date 24
of enactment of this Act, the Assistant Sec-25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:09 Feb 19, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H651.IH H651
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 4
•HR 651 IH
retary shall identify any remaining spectrum re-1
quired to be identified under paragraph (1) 2
after compliance with subparagraph (A) of this 3
paragraph. 4
(c) A
UCTIONS.— 5
(1) I
N GENERAL.—With respect to the spec-6
trum identified for reallocation under subsection (b) 7
for commercial licensed use, the Commission shall 8
grant licenses through systems of competitive bid-9
ding for not less than 1250 megahertz of the spec-10
trum for full-power commercial licensed use cases. 11
(2) S
CHEDULE.—The Commission shall auction 12
the spectrum under paragraph (1) according to the 13
following schedule: 14
(A) Not later than 3 years after the date 15
of enactment of this Act, the Commission shall 16
complete 1 or more systems of competitive bid-17
ding for not less than 600 megahertz of the 18
spectrum. 19
(B) Not later than 6 years after the date 20
of enactment of this Act, the Commission shall 21
complete 1 or more systems of competitive bid-22
ding for any remaining spectrum required to be 23
auctioned under paragraph (1) after compliance 24
with subparagraph (A) of this paragraph. 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:09 Feb 19, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H651.IH H651
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 5
•HR 651 IH
(d) UNLICENSEDUSE.—Not later than 2 years after 1
the date of enactment of this Act, the Commission shall 2
make available on an unlicensed basis not less than 125 3
megahertz of the spectrum in the covered band. 4
(e) L
ICENSED ORUNLICENSEDUSE.—Not later than 5
8 years after the date of enactment of this Act, the Com-6
mission shall make available for use on a licensed or unli-7
censed basis any remaining spectrum that is— 8
(1) identified under subsection (b); and 9
(2) not— 10
(A) auctioned under subsection (c); or 11
(B) made available on an unlicensed basis 12
under subsection (d). 13
(f) A
UCTIONPROCEEDSTOCOVER110 PERCENT OF 14
F
EDERALRELOCATION ORSHARINGCOSTS.—Nothing in 15
this section shall be construed to relieve the Commission 16
from the requirements under section 309(j)(16)(B) of the 17
Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 309(j)(16)(B)). 18
(g) A
UCTIONAUTHORITY.—Section 309(j)(11) of the 19
Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 309(j)(11)) is 20
amended— 21
(1) by striking ‘‘grant a license or permit under 22
this subsection shall expire March 9, 2023’’ and in-23
serting ‘‘complete a system of competitive bidding 24
VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:09 Feb 19, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H651.IH H651
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 6
•HR 651 IH
under this subsection shall expire September 30, 1
2027’’; 2
(2) by striking ‘‘and with respect to’’ and in-3
serting ‘‘with respect to’’; and 4
(3) by inserting before the period at the end the 5
following: ‘‘, and with respect to the electromagnetic 6
spectrum in the covered band (as defined in section 7
2(a) of the Spectrum Pipeline Act of 2025), such 8
authority shall expire on the date that is 8 years 9
after the date of enactment of that Act’’. 10
(h) R
EPORTINGREQUIREMENTS AND QUARTERLY 11
B
RIEFINGS.— 12
(1) NTIA
PROGRESS REPORT ON SPECTRUM 13
IDENTIFICATION.— 14
(A) I
N GENERAL.—On each date as of 15
which the Assistant Secretary, in consultation 16
with the Commission, has identified the quan-17
tity of spectrum required under subparagraph 18
(A) or (B), respectively, of subsection (b)(2), 19
the Assistant Secretary shall submit to the ap-20
propriate committees of Congress a report de-21
tailing the findings and conclusions that the As-22
sistant Secretary used to support the identifica-23
tion. 24
VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:09 Feb 19, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H651.IH H651
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 7
•HR 651 IH
(B) CONTENTS.—The Assistant Secretary 1
shall include in each report submitted under 2
subparagraph (A)— 3
(i) an analysis of the spectrum identi-4
fied; and 5
(ii) the Federal entities with which 6
the Assistant Secretary coordinated re-7
garding the spectrum identified. 8
(C) F
ORM OF REPORT .—Each report re-9
quired under subparagraph (A) shall be sub-10
mitted in unclassified form, but may contain a 11
classified annex. 12
(2) NTIA
AND FCC REPORTS ON REALLOCA -13
TION OF SPECTRUM IDENTIFIED .— 14
(A) I
NITIAL PROGRESS REPORT .—Not 15
later than 1 year after the date of enactment of 16
this Act, the Assistant Secretary, in consulta-17
tion with the Commission, shall submit to the 18
appropriate committees of Congress a report on 19
the progress of the Assistant Secretary in iden-20
tifying spectrum in the covered band for re-21
allocation under subsection (b) that includes— 22
(i) an assessment of the operations of 23
the Federal entities and non-Federal enti-24
VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:09 Feb 19, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H651.IH H651
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 8
•HR 651 IH
ties that operate in the spectrum in the 1
covered band; and 2
(ii) a preliminary analysis of which 3
portions of the covered band are being con-4
sidered for reallocation in accordance with 5
subsection (b)(1). 6
(B) R
EPORTS ON 2 TRANCHES OF IDENTI -7
FIED SPECTRUM.—Not later than 60 days after 8
each date as of which the Assistant Secretary, 9
in consultation with the Commission, has iden-10
tified the quantity of spectrum required under 11
subparagraph (A) or (B), respectively, of sub-12
section (b)(2), the Assistant Secretary, in con-13
sultation with the Commission, shall submit to 14
the appropriate committees of Congress a re-15
port that includes— 16
(i) an assessment of the operations of 17
the Federal entities and non-Federal enti-18
ties that operate in the applicable spec-19
trum, current as of the date of the submis-20
sion of the report; 21
(ii) the steps the President has taken 22
to begin the process of withdrawing or 23
modifying the assignments of Federal enti-24
ties in the covered band as necessary for 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:09 Feb 19, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H651.IH H651
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 9
•HR 651 IH
the Commission to begin and complete the 1
systems of competitive bidding under sub-2
section (c); 3
(iii) an estimate of the funding re-4
quired for the relocation or sharing costs 5
(as defined in section 113(g)(3) of the Na-6
tional Telecommunications and Informa-7
tion Administration Organization Act (47 8
U.S.C. 923(g)(3))) expected to be incurred 9
by the Federal entities described in clause 10
(ii) in connection with the reallocation of 11
the applicable spectrum; and 12
(iv) steps the Assistant Secretary is 13
taking to ensure global harmonization with 14
the spectrum to be reallocated. 15
(C) F
ORM OF REPORT .—Each report re-16
quired under this paragraph shall be submitted 17
in unclassified form, but may contain a classi-18
fied annex. 19
(3) A
NNUAL BRIEFINGS.— 20
(A) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year 21
after the date of enactment of this Act, and an-22
nually thereafter until the date that is 10 years 23
after such date of enactment, the Assistant Sec-24
retary and the Chairman of the Commission 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:09 Feb 19, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H651.IH H651
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 10
•HR 651 IH
shall provide the appropriate committees of 1
Congress with a briefing on the progress of the 2
Assistant Secretary and the Chairman in com-3
plying with the requirements of this section. 4
(B) C
ONTENTS.—The Assistant Secretary 5
and the Chairman of the Commission shall in-6
clude in each briefing under subparagraph 7
(A)— 8
(i) an update on the specific fre-9
quencies of spectrum under consideration 10
or that have been identified to meet the re-11
quirements of subsection (b); 12
(ii) an explanation of the Federal en-13
tities and non-Federal entities that operate 14
on the frequencies described in clause (i) 15
and the specific services or systems utilized 16
by those entities on those frequencies; 17
(iii) the extent to which Federal enti-18
ties are cooperating with the efforts of the 19
Assistant Secretary and the Chairman of 20
the Commission to comply with the re-21
quirements of this Act; 22
(iv) an update on the progress of the 23
systems of competitive bidding required by 24
subsection (c); and 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:09 Feb 19, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H651.IH H651
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 11
•HR 651 IH
(v) any additional information related 1
to compliance with this Act by the Assist-2
ant Secretary and the Chairman. 3
(C) F
ORM OF BRIEFING .—Any classified 4
information that would otherwise be provided in 5
a briefing under subparagraph (A) shall be pro-6
vided in a separate classified briefing. 7
SEC. 3. SPECTRUM RELOCATION FUND MODERNIZATION. 8
(a) C
ONGRESSIONAL NOTIFICATIONTIMELINES.— 9
Section 118 of the National Telecommunications and In-10
formation Administration Organization Act (47 U.S.C. 11
928) is amended— 12
(1) in subsection (d)(2)— 13
(A) in subparagraph (C), by striking ‘‘30 14
days’’ and inserting ‘‘15 days’’; and 15
(B) in the matter following subparagraph 16
(C), by striking ‘‘30 days’’ and inserting ‘‘15 17
days’’; 18
(2) in subsection (f)(2)(B)(iv), by striking ‘‘30 19
days’’ and inserting ‘‘15 days’’; and 20
(3) in subsection (g)(2)(D)(ii), by striking ‘‘60 21
days’’ and inserting ‘‘15 days’’. 22
(b) C
OMPARABLECAPABILITY.—Section 113(g)(3) of 23
the National Telecommunications and Information Ad-24
VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:09 Feb 19, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00011 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H651.IH H651
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 12
•HR 651 IH
ministration Organization Act (47 U.S.C. 923(g)(3)) is 1
amended— 2
(1) in subparagraph (A)— 3
(A) in clause (iv), by striking ‘‘; and’’ and 4
inserting a semicolon; 5
(B) in clause (v), by striking the period at 6
the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 7
(C) by adding at the end the following: 8
‘‘(vi) the costs associated with replac-9
ing systems and equipment with state-of- 10
the-art systems and equipment, including 11
systems and equipment with additional 12
functions, only if the state-of-the-art sys-13
tems and equipment allow for the realloca-14
tion of significantly more valuable spec-15
trum frequencies from Federal use to ex-16
clusive non-Federal use or to shared Fed-17
eral and non-Federal use than would be re-18
allocated if systems and equipment were 19
replaced with comparable systems and 20
equipment or systems and equipment with 21
incidental increases in functionality, pro-22
vided the costs would not jeopardize the 23
ability of the Assistant Secretary, in con-24
sultation with the Chair of the Commis-25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:09 Feb 19, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00012 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H651.IH H651
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 13
•HR 651 IH
sion, to reallocate eligible spectrum fre-1
quencies from Federal use to exclusive 2
non-Federal use or to shared use.’’; and 3
(2) in subparagraph (B)(ii), by striking ‘‘inci-4
dental’’. 5
Æ
VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:09 Feb 19, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00013 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H651.IH H651
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB